Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Did curse tablets influence the Book of Revelation?

IMPRECATORY APOCALYPSE? New Testament's Book of Revelation Was Influenced by Curse Tablets, Scholar Deduces. The style of John’s Revelation, the apocalyptic final book of the New Testament, smacks of formally cursing one’s enemies in true Middle Eastern tradition, proposes scholar at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).
John’s Revelation includes wording and phrases that smack of curse tablets such as: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again.” (Revelation 18:21)

This is the stuff of curse-ritual material, Hölscher feels (albeit talking about the fallen Babylon, not the neighbor), and the text goes on: “The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again” – (Revelation 18:22) and it goes on and on and on.

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